Somewhere Between Life and Death by Lurlene McDaniel

Author:Lurlene McDaniel [McDaniel, Lurlene]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77624-2
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2014-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

Erin let herself into her house and shivered. The silence was eerie. No lamps were lit, and the rooms were dark and chilly. She found a note from her dad saying he couldn’t sleep and had gone to the library, and that he’d be home by ten to get ready to go to the hospital.

Erin deposited her things in her room, took a hot shower, washed her hair, and began to blow-dry it. She’d never felt so drained and sapped in her life, not even after a grueling dance performance. She stared at the mirror thoughtfully. She hadn’t thought about dancing in days. There’d been a time when that was all she thought about. Funny how the focus of your life can shift so drastically.

Her fine blond hair danced about her head as the dryer worked. Terpsicord, Ms. Thornton, and Wolftrap seemed light-years away. She’d never even told Amy about Wolftrap. She’d been upset with her and had perversely held back the news. Yet Erin knew that if she had said something, Amy’s response would have been totally excited and encouraging.

A lump rose in Erin’s throat. There were so many things she wanted to say to her sister, so many times she’d growled at her or teased her that she wanted to take back. If only Amy would wake up, Erin swore she’d never be mean to her again.

Listlessly Erin finished dressing and wandered to the living room. She put on a cassette of Amy’s favorite rock group and pulled out the stack of family photo albums. Her mother had kept them up-to-date, and Erin started with the one that featured Amy’s birth. She’d just gotten past the photos of an infant Amy in the hospital nursery when the doorbell rang. Travis stood on the doorstep. She brought him into the living room and plopped onto the floor.

“I was just going through some old pictures,” she explained.

He tossed the stuffed bear he was carrying onto the sofa and sat down beside her. “Amy?” he asked, pointing to a dark-haired toddler, holding two fistfuls of birthday cake.

“She was a terror,” Erin said with a wistful smile.

“Is this you?” He indicated one of a six-year-old Erin dressed in a tutu with her arms poised over her head.

She made a face at her roly-poly image. “That was taken before my very first recital. Look at all that baby fat.”

“There’s no baby fat on you now,” Travis said, and his observation made her stomach feel fluttery. He was sitting so close that she caught his fresh, clean scent.

They flipped through the albums and watched the years parade past in a collection of color photos. Amy in her playpen. Erin on her first tricycle. Amy with her front teeth missing and clutching her school lunch box. Erin wearing a crown as May Day queen in the fifth grade.

“When was this one taken?” Travis asked.

Erin gazed at a blowup of one of her father’s favorite photographs. Erin and Amy were running barefoot through a grassy field full of dandelions, their long hair streaming behind them, their mouths wide with laughter.

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